What’s Next for Uzbekistan’s Real Estate Market?
At the Capital Market: New Opportunities for Investment conference in Tashkent, Denis Sokolov, Partner and CEO of CWMP, outlined key trends and challenges facing Uzbekistan’s real estate market, calling for a shift from small-scale private investments to a more institutional approach.
«Without transforming the market from private, small-scale investments, where someone buys an apartment or office space, to a systemic, institutional model, nothing will fundamentally change,» said Sokolov.
He emphasised that further growth depends on banks becoming more engaged in professional property valuation, project financing, and offering mortgage lending under modernised standards.
Sokolov also touched on the quality of real estate and economic multipliers, noting that speculative buyers currently dominate the market. «Investors are still primarily speculators—people who buy just to sell at a higher price. That’s not efficient for the economy,» he said.
Such investments, he argued, result in capital being «buried in concrete,» with properties often sitting idle for years before being passed on to family members. «From a market perspective, this is not an optimal use of funds,» Sokolov added.
He predicted that this investor profile will only grow in number, bringing with it the emergence of a secondary market for opportunistic investors—those willing to sell assets at lower prices.
Sokolov highlighted the recent introduction of escrow accounts as a timely step, reducing risks and encouraging more income-based investing. «Real estate investors should make returns from what a property generates—not from resale speculation,» he noted.
The conference also featured sessions on:
- Entering the stock market and attracting investors
- Changing investor focus in Uzbekistan
- New investment tools in the Uzbek bond market
- Alternative investment strategies: from real estate to digital assets
Key speakers included:
- Vyacheslav Pak (Deputy Director, National Agency for Perspective Projects of Uzbekistan)
- George Paresishvili (Chairman of the Tashkent Stock Exchange)
The event was supported by TVS Bank, Payme, the National Association of Investment Institutions, and Universal Bank.
Kursiv Uzbekistan also reports that the Tashkent Stock Exchange is working on issuing bonds denominated in the national currency.
